Youth and Road Crashes: A Program of Research and Prevention

Safety Programs for Young Drivers. TIRF has created a national inventory of youth-oriented road safety programs including driver education, graduated driver licensing, and other safety programs. The Young and New Driver Resource Centre can be accessed at www.yndrc.tirf.ca.

Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death and injury for all young people (ages 1 through 24). Young drivers in general are two to three times (2x-3x) more likely to experience a crash. In particular, during the first six months of licensure, young drivers are eight times (8x) more likely to be involved in a fatal crash than more experienced drivers. To address this problem, the YNDRC contains research, tools and strategies for young drivers, parents and educators to help reduce the crash risk of young drivers and to improve their safety, and the safety of other road users.

The Young and New Driver Resource Centre contains a wealth of information and tools that can help teens, parents and educators better understand and navigate the overwhelming process of teaching teenagers how to drive. The Issues section contains research and statistics about road safety issues specific to teens and illustrates why teens are the most at risk age group on the road. The Graduated Driver Licencing and Driver Education sections provide an overview of these programs and their requirements in each province and territory, and comparisons across jurisdictions. Learning about Graduated Driver Licencing (GDL) programs and Driver Education (DE) programs can help teens, parents and educators to better understand the important role these programs play in developing safe and confident young and new drivers.The Parent Resources section is where parents can learn the facts and access tools and other materials that can help them to initiate an open, honest and fact-based conversation with their young driver about safety on the road.

The Centre also offers a collection of additional resources from other organizations about related road safety programs that can be useful for teens, parents and educators, as well as references to the research literature on young and new drivers for those who are looking for more information.